A COUNCIL campaign to push LGBTQ+ rights helped a top councillor to “accept” he’d been “denying” his identity as a gay man.
Richard Clark, who is the deputy leader of Torfaen Borough Council, revealed how awareness-raising campaigns by the council had helped change his life when councillors agreed to support local Pride initiatives which promote acceptance, equality and celebrate the work of LGBTQ+ people.
The 55-year-old, who has served as a councillor for 19 years, said the authority has already been working to support the LGBTQ+ community and he had personally benefited from the way it has sought to promote inclusion.
He told councillors: “Personally that support enabled me, and helped me, to go from an individual in denial to be a proud, accepting person of who I am.”
He added: “I, for one, feel proud of who I am and what this council does in support of equality.
“It has helped me transition – not in that transition way and it wouldn’t bother me if it was – but in accepting who I am, and I fully support this motion.”
Cllr Clark later told the Local Democracy Reporting Service he had accepted to himself that he was gay “about nine or ten years ago” which was the time he was referring to in relation to work the council had done in promoting LGBTQ+ inclusion, such as sharing leaflets and advice timed to coincide with June which is recognised as Pride month.
He added: “It probably was 2010 when I really, really knew (I was gay) but probably all my life.”
The councillor, who has lived all his life in Croesygeiliog, Cwmbran, and which is the ward he represents on the council, said he welcomed greater acceptance of sexual diversity.
He has a long-term partner but said previously he’d had relationships with women, though none for longer than a year or 16 months.
“The people who fought for Pride, and things like that, when I was growing up have made life easier for me,” he said.
“The whole time when I was ‘normal’ it would have been easier to conform and have 2.4 children with parents asking every Christmas ‘shouldn’t we have grandchildren?’ My life would have been easier, but it would not be who I am.”
The motion calling for the council to support Pride events had been put forward by independent councillor for Abersychan, Giles Davies, and at the meeting Cllr Clark said he was “surprised” it had been brought, as the council had “supported those values for a number of years”.
But the Labour councillor said after Cllr Davies had said he put the motion before the council to show to younger LGBTQ+ people in the borough they are accepted he said he appreciated that point as it wasn’t an issue that was discussed while he was growing up.
Cllr Clark is the second Torfaen councillor to have spoken publicly about their experiences as a gay man. At June’s council meeting his Labour colleague, Nathan Yeowell, who represents Panteg, revealed the toll feeling unable to discuss his sexuality as a young man had taken on his mental health.
At the July meeting Cllr Peter Jones, the Labour cabinet member with responsibility for equality, said the council is supporting charity Club FOD which is aiming to organise the first Pride event in Torfaen, with a provisional date that it take place at Pontypool Park on June 1 next year.
The Cwmbran Two Locks councillor said a number of Pride events have been started across Gwent in recent years including in Abergavenny, Newport and most recently Caerphilly this summer.
But he said he feared that is a sign the community has felt under threat, and noted that Pride is “historically and at its heart a protest and of increasing the visibility of LGBTQ+ matters.
“I am concerned about the increasing levels of hate crime against LGBTQ people that we have seen over the last few years and the divisive and toxic online discourse around gender identity and see these new events as a sign that the LGBTQ+ community in Gwent believe their rights are under threat.”
